Defibrillation/cardioversion is a technique employed to counter arrhythmic heart conditions including some tachycardias in the atria and/or ventricles. Typically, electrodes are employed to stimulate the heart with electrical impulses or shocks of a magnitude substantially greater than pulses used in cardiac pacing.
Defibrillation/cardioversion systems include body implantable electrodes and are referred to as implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs). Such electrodes can be in the form of patches applied directly to epicardial tissue, or at the distal end regions of intravascular catheters, inserted into a selected cardiac chamber. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,603,705; 4,693,253; 4,944,300; and 5,105,810, the disclosures of which are all incorporated herein by reference, disclose intravascular or transvenous electrodes, employed either alone or in combination with an epicardial patch electrode. Compliant epicardial defibrillator electrodes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,567,900 and 5,618,287, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. A sensing epicardial electrode configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,503, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In addition to epicardial and transvenous electrodes, subcutaneous electrode systems have also been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,342,407 and 5,603,732, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, teach the use of a pulse monitor/generator surgically implanted into the abdomen and subcutaneous electrodes implanted in the thorax. This system is far more complicated to use than current ICD systems using transvenous lead systems together with an active can electrode, and therefore it has no practical use. It has, in fact, never been used because of the surgical difficulty of applying such a device (3 incisions), the impractical abdominal location of the generator and the electrically poor sensing and defibrillation aspects of such a system.
Recent efforts to improve the efficiency of ICDs have led manufacturers to produce ICDs which are small enough to be implanted in the pectoral region. In addition, advances in circuit design have enabled the housing of the ICD to form a subcutaneous electrode. Some examples of ICDs in which the housing of the ICD serves as an optional additional electrode are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,133,353; 5,261,400; 5,620,477; and 5,658,321, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
ICDs are now an established therapy for the management of life-threatening cardiac rhythm disorders, primarily ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib). ICDs are very effective at treating V-Fib, but are therapies that still require significant surgery.
As ICD therapy becomes more prophylactic in nature and used in progressively less ill individuals, the requirement of ICD therapy to use intravenous catheters and transvenous leads is an impediment to very long-term management as most individuals will begin to develop complications related to lead system malfunction sometime in the 5-10 year time frame, often earlier. In addition, chronic transvenous lead systems, their implantation and removals, can damage major cardiovascular venous systems and the tricuspid valve, as well as result in life-threatening perforations of the great vessels and heart. Consequently, use of transvenous lead systems, despite their many advantages, are not without their chronic patient management limitations in those with life expectancies of >5 years. Moreover, transvenous ICD systems also increase cost and require specialized interventional rooms and equipment as well as special skill for insertion. These systems are typically implanted by cardiac electrophysiologists who have had a great deal of extra training.
In addition to the background related to ICD therapy, the present invention requires a brief understanding of automatic external defibrillator (AED) therapy. AEDs employ the use of cutaneous patch electrodes to effect defibrillation under the direction of a bystander user who treats the patient suffering from V-Fib. AEDs can be as effective as an ICD if applied to the victim promptly within 2 to 3 minutes.
AED therapy has great appeal as a tool for diminishing the risk of death in public venues such as in air flight. However, an AED must be used by another individual, not the person suffering from the potentially fatal rhythm. It is more of a public health tool than a patient-specific tool like an ICD. Because >75% of cardiac arrests occur in the home, and over half occur in the bedroom, patients at risk of cardiac arrest are often alone or asleep and cannot be helped in time with an AED. Moreover, its success depends to a reasonable degree on an acceptable level of skill and calm by the bystander user.
What is needed, therefore, is a combination of the two forms of therapy which would provide prompt and near-certain defibrillation, like an ICD, but without the long-term adverse sequelae of a transvenous lead system while simultaneously using most of the simpler and lower cost technology of an AED. What is also needed is a cardioverter/defibrillator that is of simple design and can be comfortably implanted in a patient for many years. We call such a device a unitary subcutaneous only ICD (US-ICD) and is described in detail below.